Chevron stencil kit



Sept. 20, 1955 F. R. BEAN CHEVRON sTENcIL KIT Filed April l, 1952 IN VEN TOR. ifm; /K f4/14 BY Wm @www United States PatentO 2,118,190 CHEVRON sTENcIL Krr l Fields R. Bean, Del Mar, Calif. Application April 1, 1952, serial No. 279,900

s claims. (ci. 10i- 126) This invention relates to stencilling apparatus and more particularly relates to astencil kit for marking chevrons or grade insignia on clothing worn by memberson the armed services. The word chevron is used herein as generally used in the armed services of the United States, denoting complete insignia of grade, and is not limited, as in the heraldic sense, to a single angulated stripe.

Chevrons are, by service regulations, sewn on the sleeves of dress and field uniforms but not on dungarees or work-clothes. Because of the c ost 'of sewn chevrons and the wear 'to which dungarees are subjected, grade insignia are commonly stencilled on workclothes. Laundering with the strong soaps issued by the services may obliterate or disgure the stencilled chevrons in three or four washings, after which the chevrons are renewed by re-stencilling. A change in the grade or rating of the wearer of the dungarees also requires re-stencilling. Because the stencils are usually cut by hand from any material such as cardboard which is available at the moment, the dungaree grade insignia of a sergeant, for example, may be a confusion of roughly formed stripes, roughly superimposed on faded stripes. It is notorious that the longer a man has served and the higher his grade, the less the neatness and clarity of his work-clothes insignia are in becoming accord with his status.

It is an object of my invention to provide a chevron stencilling kit by which neat, clear chevrons of regulation size and style may be easily stencilled on dungarees.

A further object of my invention is to provide a stencilling kit which enables a new chevron to be accurately placed with respect to an old one.

Another object of my invention is to provide a stencilling kit which may be used to stencil all the grade insignia from that of a private 1st class to the highest rating of sergeant, obviating the need of cutting, borrowing, or otherwise acquiring a new stencil each time that a man receives a promotion or demotion.

In the accompanying drawing, illustrative of a preferred embodiment of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a box forming a part of, and a housing for other parts of, a chevron stencilling kit;

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line of section 2 2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of stencil shields for use with the box of Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view on a slightly reduced scale, showing the box and shields assembled for stencilling a chevron; and

Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view on the line of section 5 5 of Fig. 4, and on the scale of Fig. 2.

Having reference now to the details of the drawing, I have shown in Fig. 1 a box 6 having base or container portion 7 and a flanged cover 8 having a slip-on t on the base 7. The base 7 is contracted at its bottom so that when the base is reversed and the bottom portion 9 is nested in the cover 8, a narrow space remains between the walls of the base and the flanges of the cover. In its 2,718,190 Patented Sept.y 20, 1955 ice normal closed position the box 6 obviously is suitable as a tracted bottom portion 9 is nested within the cover 8,

textile material 10 such as the sleeve of dungarees may be stretched tautly between the flat bottom wall 11 'of the base 7 and the central portion 12 of the cover 8, being held by the flanges 13 of the cover. l

The central portion 12 of the cover 8 is a stencil plate, having a stencil-cut, representing military grade insignia in the form of a chevron. The stencil-cut comprises a plurality of angulated perforations 14, commonly called stripes, and also a plurality of curvilinear perforations 15 commonly called rockers. The grouping of-three such stripes and three such rockers in a nested formation along an axis centrally intersecting all of the perforations is representative of the chevron of the highest grade of sergeant; while by eliminating all the rockers and all but one of the stripes, the chevron becames the insignia of a private first-Clas. The stripes 14 and rockers 15 are, by service regulations, arranged-in nests in` which the central angle of each stripe 14 lies within the concavity ofl the stripe next above it, and the central portion of each rocker 15 lies within the concavity of the rocker next below it. It is this entrance of onestripe or rocker into the area of the circumscribed outlineof another stripe or rocker which makes difficult the construction of a unit stencil kit adaptable to `lall military grades, which this invention provides.

As customary in stencil-cuts, the stripes 14 and rockers 15 need not each be one continuous perforation but may be divided by tie-ins to provide strength. It is to be understood that, whether divided by tie-ins as illustrated, or continuous, each stripe or rocker is considered herein as a unit, and the circumscribed outline thereof is the shortest line encompassing the unit.

To enable the stencil kit to be used for chevrons of various grades, I provide two shields 16 and 17, of which the shield 16 has one margin 18 substantially conforming in shape to one of the stripe perforations 14 so that the shield may be placed with its margin 18 close to a stripe perforation 14 and lying between the actual outline of that particular perforation 14 and the actual outline of a next adjacent perforation 14, thus closing said next adjacent perforation while leaving the particular perforation open. In like manner the shield 17 has one margin 19 substantially conforming in shape to one of the rocker perforations 15, so as to be capable of being placed between the actual outlines of two rocker perforations 15, the shield 17 then closing the one while leaving the other open.

The shields 16 and 17 may be very thin so as to be capable of being inserted slidably between the stencil plate 12 and the textile material 10. To guide the movement of the shields 16 and 17, I preferably provide narrow slots 20 in the end flanges 13 of the cover 8. The shields 16 and 17 may be moved in and out through the slots 20 in the direction of the axis on which the perforations 14 and 15 are nested, so as to cut off and close progressively one or more of the perforations. To enable the operator to see the movement and placement of the shields but most particularly to enable him to place the stencil plate 12 accurately, with respect to an old and possibly faded chevron, the stencil plate 12 is preferably made of transparent material such as any of the transparent plastics used for making boxes.

Operation of the kit will be obvious from its description. To re-stencil over an old stencil marking, the operator places the cover 8 upon the garment sleeve so that the old chevron shows through appropriate perforations in the stencil plate 12, inserts the base 7 in the garment sleeve and presses the bottom portion 9 into the cover 8 to stretch and hold the 'textiienaterial between them. A corporal, promoted'f-rorn private first class, would place the plate 12 so that his old single stripe would appear in the lower or innermost stripe perforation 14, and would piaeertheshiel 161e 4close the upper or outermost stripe perforation 14,-a`i1'd would place the shield `17 to 'close all of "thefrocker perforations 15. This arrangement is illustrat'ed'i'n' Fig. 4A.' A buck sergeant would discard the shield 16, but use 'the 'shield 17. It will be 'seen that first theA shield 16 andthen the `shield 17 will be progessively withdrawn as promotions are gained.

As numerous modifications 'may be made in my stencil kit without departure from the spirit of my invention, and indeed chang/es Vmay be made in service regulations necessitating modications, I do not wish to be limited to 'thepre'cise showing of this specification, but desire my invention 5to `be considered as co-extensive with the appended claims.

Irclaim:

1-. Apparatus for -s'tencillng chevrons comprising: a box having a flanged cover and a contracted bottom portion over which said cover may be placed so as to leave a narrow space between the flanges of said cover and walls of said bottom portion, whereby textile material may be held tautly between said cover and said bottom portion; said cover having 'slots in opposed flanges adjacent 'to Yand parallel to the central portion of said cover, and the central portion of vsaid cover having a stencil-cut representative of a chevron having a plurality of grade insignia; and shields adapted to be inserted in said slots for selectively closing parts of said stencil-cut.

2.8Apparatus for stencilling chevrons comprising: A

transparent plate, having end anges, and having slots in said iianges adjacent to and parallel to the plane of said plate; base means ttingbetween said anges having a flat surface for holding textile material contiguously to said plate; said plate having perforations representative of military insignia arranged in a sequence axially normal to said slots; and shields 'iris'eftable slidably in said slots for progressively closing said perforations from either end of said sequence.

3. Apparatus for stencilli'ng chevrons comprising: a plate, having end flanges; base means tting between said iianges having `a flat surface for holding textile material contiguously to said plate; said plate having a plurality of perforations representing stripes of a chevron and grouped as a chevron; and a thin shield for insertion between said plate and textile material stretched on said base, said shield having a margin substantially conforming to a margin of a chevron stripe whereby said shield may 'close a selected consecutive'numb'er of said perfor'a` tions while leaving vothers of said perforations open.

References Cited in Ythe fiile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 106,872 Rudolf Aug. 3o, 1870 396,410 McKay Jan. 22, 1889 932,867 James Aug. 31, 1909 1,502,810 Dicossimo a. 1 July 29, 1924 FOREIGN PATENTS 

